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Friday, October 6, 2017

4 Must-Have Writing Tools

Writing is an essential skill for students and even adults to master. There are dozens of tools on the Internet designed to help correct grammar, spelling, and improve your writing skills. Here are a few of my favorites!

1. Paper Rater

Paper Rater is a free online tool to correct grammar and spelling errors. Simply upload or copy and paste your text in the site. Then answer a few questions about the type of paper you are writing and the education level at which you are writing.

Paper Rater will analyze your paper for common errors and suggest improvements to your writing. There is even a proofreading feature available on the Pro Version. I love the fact that you can use this tool online, it gives you a suggested "grade," and even provides resources for improving your writing.

2. Grammarly

Grammarly is also a free tool available on your Chrome browser or for download on your Mac or PC. Grammarly is an excellent tool for correcting grammar and spelling errors. Although it does not have a "suggested grade," feature, it does provide you with a way to quickly check your documents, emails, and even form submissions for spelling and grammar errors. Not only does the tool provide you with spelling and grammar checking, it also provides a built tool for suggesting new words. I like the fact that Grammarly forces you to login to the application, so that you can save your work across different devices.

3. After the Deadline (Polish My Writing)

After the Deadline (previously known as Polish My Writing) is another free tool to enhance your writing abilities. I like the fact that this particular free tool is simplistic, yet very effective. Just like Paper Rater, you will copy and paste your writing into the website. The tool scans your document and color codes spelling errors (red), grammar suggestion (green), and style suggestion (blue). I like that this tool provides you with suggestions for your writing style. You can make corrections or get an explanation on how to improve the suggestion, simply by clicking on the underlined word.

4. BibMe

If you or your students write papers, then you know that creating citations and references are extremely important. I have always loved Citation Machine, but I just found a new tool that I really like. It is called Bib Me. Although it has been around for some time, I recently found it. I like it for several reasons. First, it has a very simplistic interface, which makes creating a bibliography extremely useful.

For example, you can just copy and paste the URL, title, or ISBN of your resource and EasyBib can generate a bibliography. If you have more sources to add, you can keep adding to it and then download!